Cognitions supportive of child molestation

Horley, James

doi:10.1016/s1359-1789(98)00042-1

Cited by 23 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…In a series of studies, Horley ( 1988, 2000Horley & Quinsey, 1994Horley, Quinsey, & Jones, 1997) found somewhat equivocal results. His findings suggest that some child molesters hold inappropriate views of children and women, and this matches results reported earlier by Howells (1979).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Distorted Attitudes and Perceptions, and Their Relationship With Self-Esteem and Coping in Child Molesters

Marshall

Sachdev

et al. 2003

Sex Abuse

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Two studies were conducted to compare various aspects of child molesters, non-sexual offenders, and community-based nonoffenders. These studies were aimed at examining some implications of our general model of sexual offending. Study 1 compared the responses of these 3 groups on measures of self-esteem, attitudes toward women and children, and social desirability tendencies. The only observed difference was that child molesters had significantly lower self-esteem than did the other 2 groups. In Study 2, child molesters displayed more cognitive distortions about sex between adults and children than did nonsexual offenders or nonoffenders. However in this study child molesters scored in the same range as the other participants on self-esteem and the tendency to use sex as a way of coping with problems. The results are discussed in terms of the differences between the present findings and earlier studies, and their implications for future research.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Distorted Attitudes and Perceptions, and Their Relationship With Self-Esteem and Coping in Child Molesters

Marshall

Sachdev

et al. 2003

Sex Abuse

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“…Reich, Harber & Siegel, 2008;Rosenberg, 1997;Vansteelandt & Van Mechelen, 2006). Secondly, belief systems are more proximal to actual sexual behaviour, and consequently more amenable to therapeutic interventions, than enduring personality traits or disorders (Horley, 2000). Thirdly, examining belief systems about parents, lovers and friends, as we do in the present study, affords a straightforward conceptual link to an attachment-theoretical analysis of sex offenders (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Belief systems are regarded generally as more changeable than personality traits or disorders (Horley, 2000) and thus more amenable to clinical interventions. The identification of distinct belief systems about the traits of one's attachment figures should lead to a more offender-centred clinical intervention.…”

Section: Implications For Aetiology Risk Assessment and Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social cognitive variables have been researched extensively in sex offenders in studies of offence-supporting attitudes (Horley, 2000), attributions toward one's sexual behaviour (Mann & Hollin, 2007), content of sexual fantasies (Gee, Devilly & Ward, 2004) and social problem-solving ability (Nezu, Nezu, Dudek, Peacock & Stoll, 2005). Less frequently studied are offenders' underlying cognitive schemas that guide their construals of self and others (Maruna & Mann, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Perception of self and others in male sex offenders against children: Schema content and its relation to criminal sexual behaviour

Reich

Amit

Siegel

2009

Journal of Sexual Aggression

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“…So, although-as Abel suggested-child molesters are comforted by their distorted thinking, according to the social desirability hypothesis they hide such thinking to avoid the discomfort of the censure of others. In other words, they fake good, presenting themselves as if they are men with normal beliefs about child sexual abuse (Blumenthal, Gudjonsson, & Burns, 1999;Horley, 2000;Vanhouche & Vertommen, 1999).…”

Section: Do Child Molesters Deliberately Fake Good On Cognitive Distomentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Child Molesters Deliberately Fake Good on Cognitive Distortion Questionnaires? An Information Processing-Based Investigation

Gannon

Polaschek

2005

Sex Abuse

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Researchers and clinicians hypothesize that child molesters hold offence-supportive beliefs or cognitive distortions that require restructuring for successful rehabilitation. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this hypothesis. Current questionnaire measures of both untreated and treated child molesters' cognitive distortions show that these men typically disagree with cognitive distortions. Such findings, especially prior to treatment, are often interpreted to mean that child molesters are faking good. In this study we drew on personality-related research showing that when participants intentionally respond in a socially desirable way on questionnaires, they make faster item responses than when answering honestly. Untreated child molesters, treated child molesters, and two types of controls (nonsexual offenders and nonoffenders) were administered a computerized cognitive distortion questionnaire and their responses and response times were recorded. Consistent with previous research, all groups tended to disagree with the cognitive distortions. However, response time data were surprising; only the treated child molesters displayed the fake-good pattern of responding significantly faster in rejecting cognitive distortions. We speculate about the implications of these results for the cognitive distortion hypothesis, and for understanding how current treatment programs effect cognitive distortion change.

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Cognitions supportive of child molestation

Cited by 23 publications

References 60 publications

Distorted Attitudes and Perceptions, and Their Relationship With Self-Esteem and Coping in Child Molesters

Distorted Attitudes and Perceptions, and Their Relationship With Self-Esteem and Coping in Child Molesters

Perception of self and others in male sex offenders against children: Schema content and its relation to criminal sexual behaviour

Do Child Molesters Deliberately Fake Good on Cognitive Distortion Questionnaires? An Information Processing-Based Investigation

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